By the early morning of the day after the ambush, the Crimean Army in Hesi was almost completely wiped out. Well, not entirely wiped out, because two to three hundred men were still stubbornly resisting, awaiting rescue from the east bank.
While they struggled to hold on, Giray finally led the Crimean Army from the east bank to force a crossing of the river mouth, hoping to save the remaining forces on the west bank. Seeing this, the Theodoro Army no longer lingered in battle. First, they had their navy concentrate fire on the east bank, and then Posadas directly led his army soldiers. After capturing a batch of prisoners, they immediately mounted their warhorses and fled. By noon, after the last Theodoro galley-frigate left the river mouth, Giray was finally able to lead the Crimean Army back to Hesi.
After a night of fierce fighting, or rather, a massacre, the nearly two thousand Crimean soldiers left on the west bank had been cut down to less than two hundred. This almost caused Giray to faint on the spot from anger. Of course, he wasn't the only one who felt like fainting; Mahmud Kelir, the General of the Janissaries, also did, because according to the information he received, the Janissary soldiers among those nearly two thousand were either captured or killed, with none spared.
"It's over, it's all over now..." Klier, who had always been incredibly calm, finally panicked. As of now, his Janissary corps, which initially numbered a full 250 men, had been reduced to just over 50. It must be known that every Janissary was an elite of the Ottoman Sultanate, and 250 men constituted a complete formation. In other words, a whole Janissary formation now had only two-tenths remaining. If things continued this way, even if the Crimean Khanate achieved ultimate victory and Klier and his men returned home safely, he would still be punished by Chandler Pasha, and even the Sultan.
At this point, he had to consider his own retreat. "If Crimea loses, I'll just surrender to either side. After all, I am an Ottoman Janissary General; neither the Golden Horde nor Theodoro would make things too difficult for me," Klier thought to himself.
While Klier was contemplating his escape route, Haji Giray, enraged, summoned his noble Generals, intending to lead his army back to the Tatar Isthmus and launch a full-scale invasion of Northern Crimea.
But his anger was useless at this moment, because all of his subordinates who understood the situation even slightly kept trying to dissuade him. They understood that the Golden Horde was the real threat, while Theodoro was merely a difficult chronic illness, annoying but not fatal. In comparison, temporarily setting aside this defeat at Kirilivka and rushing to Cherkassk for support was the most important thing.
After his anger subsided for a while, the rational Giray also recognized this unacceptable reality. He could only force himself to swallow the bitter pill of the ambush and continue to gather his forces to rush to Cherkassk to intercept the Golden Horde Army.
Shortly after Giray decided to lead the Khanate's army to Cherkassk, the Theodoro Army, having achieved a great victory at Kirilivka, gloriously returned to Northern Crimea. After receiving a brief report of this victory, Manuel personally led people to the port on the eastern Isthmus to welcome Posadas's Principality Army and the Principality Navy, which had rapidly traveled between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov via "land-sailing."
While warmly welcoming this army that had brought victory to the Principality, Manuel did not relax his vigilance over the movements of the Crimean Khanate. Approximately five days later, at dusk, after personally receiving information from the Dark Department that Crimea had swallowed the bitter pill of defeat, abandoned thoughts of revenge against Theodoro, and was now focused on counterattacking the Golden Horde, he and the Principality's Generals finally breathed a complete sigh of relief. "Excellent! It seems the Crimean Khanate won't do anything to us for a while!" Thinking this, he even excitedly leaped up from his seat.
Although Theodoro had repelled the Crimean Khanate's attack in the short term, it was not over yet. Next, the Principality's livelihood, the governance of Northern Crimea, the affected trade, hidden internal opposition, the handling of the Tatars, and the status of the Crescent Sect... none of these were easy matters.
Thinking of these things, Manuel, who was still temporarily handling affairs in the watchtower of the Isthmus defense line, began to get a headache. "Forget it, since that's the case, let's start with the simplest things first," he muttered to himself, taking out the prisoner details submitted by Posadas from a pile of archives. What kind of prisoners were these, and where did they come from? Naturally, they were captured during the ambush he set up at Kirilivka.
"First, for the common Tatars, same old rule: all enslaved. Half sold, half thrown to Panticapaeum to dig iron for me. Just like the previous ones." His "previous ones" referred to most of the Tatar prisoners of war captured since the war with Crimea began. Like most participants in wars of this era, Manuel had no superfluous thoughts of pity for these prisoners of different religions and cultures; he simply enslaved the defeated. If it were normal times, most of these slaves would be sold, but due to the considerable demand for laborers and slave laborers in Panticapaeum, he still kept half for the Principality's own use.
"Then, there are the Janissaries. I never thought Posadas would be so brave as to capture seven Janissary soldiers alive." Recalling the bravery of the Janissaries in Manuel's impression, he couldn't help but marvel at Posadas, deciding to treat this fierce General well and promote him again.
However, what lay before him now was the disposition of these seven Janissary prisoners. After briefly arranging Posadas's future position in his mind, he quickly turned to continue pondering how to deal with these seven men. "First, to be captured, they must either be injured or temporarily incapacitated. In any case, they cannot be converted into my fighting force in the short term. Moreover, these are Ottoman Janissaries; their loyalty to their Sultan is not comparable to that of ordinary soldiers, so whether I can persuade them to surrender is still a question mark. Looking at it this way, I can only use the old method first."
Muttering to this point, Manuel leaned back in his chair very relaxed, then straightened up, took out pen and ink, and wrote his instructions to Badars, his Commander of the Guard and head of the Dark Department: "Glorious and Holy Father above, Badars... In other words, I want these seven Janissary soldiers transferred to the Dark Department for handling. For these seven Janissaries, if they can sincerely become the lambs of our Lord again and follow the glorious path of the Principality, that would naturally be the best outcome. But if it cannot be achieved, do not force it. In any case, I must learn the detailed methods by which that despicable Ottoman Sultan trains Janissaries, for my own use. Furthermore, all information they know about the Ottoman Sultanate must be extracted from them. This point, too, must be achieved by any means necessary. Finally, if they are unwilling to sincerely submit, then they must all be killed, not a single one left!"